What Identity Thieves Do With Your Information
Filed under Featured, Identity Theft
Once they’ve got your data, thieves can use it in a lot of different ways. The most common kind of fraud occurs when crooks go on a spending spree to rack up charges on your existing credit card account—but the fun doesn’t stop there!
- They use your credit card or credit card number to charge purchases to your accounts, often changing the address your bills are sent to so you won’t notice right away.
- Using your name, date of birth, and Social Security number, a thief can open a new credit card account in your name.
- With the same info, crooks can apply for phone or wireless service.
- Some thieves use your name to open a bank account and write bad checks. Others counterfeit your checks or steal your debit card number to drain your existing bank account.
- Your identity can be quite handy when a thief wants to take out car loans or mortgages.
- Crooks can use your name when filing for bankruptcy, or co-opt your entire identity to hide a bad credit history or a criminal record and start a “new life.”
- In rare cases, a thief might give your name to police when arrested. When he’s a no-show at his hearing, guess who the cops are coming after with a warrant?
Believe it or not, if your identity is stolen, the chances are about 50/50 that you’ll never find out exactly how it happened. Some kinds of theft—when a crook steals data from company files, for instance—are very hard for victims to trace.
